NBC’s sci-fi drama Quantum Leap follows the story of Dr. Ben Song jumping into the past with no memory of why he did it or where he wants to go. His team at home, including his fiancee. Addison tries to figure out why Ben made such a big move without telling anyone. In doing so, they discover that Ben has been keeping many secrets, making it very difficult to decipher his intentions behind the time travel. In this episode, the scope of Quantum The jump passes Ben and a new player becomes the center of attention. What does this mean for Ben’s time travel? let’s find out SPOILERS AHEAD

The 1989 California Earthquake Arrives

Image Credit: NBC

Ben Song’s next leap takes him to  San Francisco in 1989. This is the day of the catastrophic earthquake that killed many people. This time, Ben finds himself in a man named John whose marriage is in jeopardy. on the brink of collapse. His wife Naomi wants a divorce and while they are talking about their future, the earthquake hits. Ben soon discovers that he is here to save the life of John and Naomi’s son Jason. When Jason found out his parents were separating, he moved back to his old neighborhood. During the earthquake, the building collapsed and Jason was killed. Things get personal for Ben when he finds out that Jason and Naomi don’t get along. As his memories resurface, he tells of his relationship with his own mother.

He feels guilty for keeping his mother at arm’s length while he was alive and doesn’t want the same for Jason. He is willing to do anything to make things right between him and Naomi. At home, Jenn, Magic, and Ian discover the identity of the other time traveler, Jumper X. He turns out to be a Marine named Richard Martinez, but there is nothing about him that suggests his time travel affiliation. At least not yet.

Is Ben Trying to go to the Future?

Image Credit: NBC

Despite the secrecy behind Ben’s efforts, his team had come up with some answers. Or so they thought. Ian discovered that Ben’s jumps weren’t random. jump even further into the past. This would have helped the team figure out where Ben went, which in turn would have given them context as to why he went there. However, this changes after the arrival of Leaper X. Jenn believes that while Leaper X also travels through time and is seen through the still camera, like Ben, he should also appear as he is rather than as the person, with which he messed. Now that they know what he looks like, they use his picture and run it through facial recognition software and the name Richard Martinez pops up. Jenn and Magic went to see Martinez, but it turns out that Martinez has no idea about the Quantum Leap project or time travel. Given the overall situation, Jenn has three options for her situation. The first is that another country has also developed a time travel project and Martinez is their jumper. The other is that a private company was secretly working on it. The third option, which might have seemed far-fetched in any other situation but seems the most plausible at this point, is that Martinez jumped from the future.

Even though Magic and his team are currently in charge of the project, they have no idea what it will look like in the future. You don’t know who will be in charge and how many people will have dropped out by then. While Martínez hasn’t made the leap yet, he may be part of the project in the future. Until now, the team had looked to the past and only focused in that direction. But now they realize that one can also travel into the future, and the presence of another time traveler, most likely from the future, suggests they may have been limited in their perception of things up until now, Ian wonders if Ben’s path does not point to the past but to the future.

Given that Ben made some changes to the program prior to his jump, and the team has yet to figure out what those changes were, they have no way of knowing if he determined his fate at some point in the past or in the future. If he’s really headed for the future, then he makes the task of discovering his intentions even harder for his team. For their travels into the past, they had a context of Ben’s life. All events have already happened and you have all the available resources in to study a specific day or event and work from there. For the future, however, they are completely in the dark. You can’t understand why Ben took such a drastic step. But one thing is for sure: it can’t have been good to lead him from his happy present into an uncertain future.

Read More: House of the Dragon Episode 10 Ending Explained: Is Lucerys Velaryon Dead Or Alive?